Both wear large hats and work shirts and (in my opinion) look like real working cowboys although some of the weapons may be studio props.

The guy on the right is wearing a cartridge belt with a Civil War surplus "US" buckle. In his belt he has a Model 1877 Colt Lightning double action revolver. I am not sure of the make of the small caliber pocket pistol.

His buddy has a Merwin Hulburt .44 Army revolver in his belt and what may be a Smith & Wesson in his hand. His large bowie knife completes the menacing look.

If you look closely on the guy with the knife, you can even see the lead tips to the bullets in his cartridge belt.

Shop for:

Comments

Be aware that there are some crooks out there copying photos from this site, creating REPRINTS and then selling them.

I would recommend that you use a watermark or oddly crop your images, so that a REPRINT cannot be created of the entire image area.

Richard, 6 years agoI have reported that seller to eBay. You should look into having the photo copyrighted or at least your scans of the photo copyrighted. You could take legal action and possibly get a lot of money out of the seller.

beachbomb, 5 years agoLooks like they both have their finger on the triggers?!?!?!?! Well trained/experienced people don't do this until they are ready to fire. Could be a mocked up photo type shoot, or real, kinda hard to tell.

scottvez, 5 years agoYou are right beach-- I don't how prevalent muzzle awareness and trigger finger safetly was in the 19th century.

It is not uncommon to see fingers on the trigger and even hammers cocked in these early photographs.

Hardbrake, 4 years agoScottvez: Nice cabinet card, I tend to agree with you on it containing props but still a nice card. The revolver in the in the belt of the man to the right looks like a Colt 1878 D.A.. Compare it to the 1878 I have picture on my show and tell. Nice card Hardbrake

scottvez, 1 year agoYes, a studio portrait probably shows a CLEANED UP cowboy, but a cowboy nonetheless. It is more the gear and clothing that would drive a "cowboy" identification for those with familiarity in the field.

This is also more than a context issue-- clean vs. dirty is not the issue.